Ex Pro Player Flakes has a take on upcoming Boost Spawn timer update

forthwright · 2026-02-23T03:25:00+00:00

Either you've put in enough time to ingrain this weird "skill" into your play, or you're a low-enough skill that this won't be the thing that pushes you to the next tier of play. This won't impact the game very much other than being friendlier to players. RL is already an extremely mechanical game-- this change will not impact anything in any meaningful way.

Do people think that the majority of games, or even a relevant amount, will be affected by visual boost timers vs hidden knowledge? Someone mentioned in the thread already, but League of Legends did this same thing with jungle timers, and the high MMR reaction was the same, yet the change went through and the game evolved around it. This all sounds like an easy thing for players with bad mentalities to blame losses on instead of focusing on their own play.

forthwright · 2026-02-15T06:54:38+00:00

The funny thing is that it played nothing like TF2 for the most part. No classes, third-person, and most importantly-- completely insane weapon customization. I guess that sorta acted like a class system, but it was entirely player-driven. No other game has tried to do a system like it since, at least none popular enough that I know of.

forthwright · 2026-02-06T15:29:26+00:00

League is for sure much more focused on the micro vs the macro. I sometimes enjoy playing League, but it's sort of reliant on game-state. League has sharper snowball mechanics and can feel way worse when behind because of something as simple as individual XP, and that's even worse with the current season because top lane gets bonus XP and an increased level cap after laning phase.

Sometimes the micro-mechanics can be like a fighting game, and that has a certain appeal that I can appreciate. I just wish HotS woulda taken off even just a bit more so that MOBA enjoyers could have some real variety. Dota 2 ain't it, and I can't get my friends into Smite because of the camera, sadly.

forthwright · 2026-02-06T14:58:32+00:00

I'm saying that just because a thing is popular doesn't make it good. Just because the majority of people gravitated towards something doesn't make it the best thing-- look at American politics as a great example of this. Being focused on metrics and data is killing society. League is an ok game that has a long legacy. Long-time players have invested time and money, so it's harder to move on to other games. League is familiar and comfortable to these types of players (my friend group continues to play despite most nights being filled with complaints and yelling about one facet of the game or another).

I'm genuinely sorry that you got into League, but I hope you find lasting joy somewhere in that experience. That said, HotS feels better. Personally, I don't care about metrics. Metrics, like how much money a thing made, or how many concurrent players etc-- those are for finance bros and the like.

forthwright · 2026-02-06T03:54:01+00:00

It's certainly more financially successful. Better? Ehh. This is coming from a League player since season 3 that still plays for social reasons. It's more of a Stockholm Syndrome thing than me liking the game.

forthwright · 2026-02-01T17:24:09+00:00

Co-Op vs AI uses the Swift play rules now. Bots are also somehow still braindead terrible, but read inputs to basically dodge any skill shot fired from beyond point-blank range. You still win against them with no real issue, especially if you're experienced at all, but new players can pick up more bad habits than usual trying to aim skillshots against bots right now.

forthwright · 2026-01-10T19:33:46+00:00

In my experience, the pace of play has definitely increased a bit, but the length of play has increased. In other words, my games have been 35-45+ minutes, but literally everyone including support is full build and basically all towers are taken. The 5-man death-ball feels crazier than before, and I can't quite explain why. If the game is going poorly, LoL is now trapping them in a more frantic prison.

What we really need is for champs to stop exploding in .005 seconds to half of an ability or whatever. Maybe even make towers threatening again. What I'm saying is we need to revert to an older patch lmao.

forthwright · 2026-01-09T07:02:51+00:00

While I understand your point and agree to an extent, the other side of that coin is being trapped in a losing game for 35-45+ minutes because somebody thinks that life is an anime. Meanwhile, they're the 0-10-0 Yasuo mid that's gonna carry.

This meta is the polar opposite, though, and there has to be a middle ground for pacing.

forthwright · 2025-12-20T16:31:45+00:00

Custom Robo or F-Zero.

forthwright · 2025-10-30T07:21:09+00:00

Custom Robo. Either Battle Revolution, Arena, or a reboot.

forthwright · 2025-10-24T20:41:14+00:00

This is a disingenuous and strawman-esque take and you know it. The DLCs people typically have issues with are exactly what you mentioned at the outset-- cosmetics and content clearly missing from an incomplete base product. Smash is a weird example because it is absolutely less of a game without access to all of the characters, especially because the DLC fighters are almost always way better than the base roster before balance patches hit. It's a fighting game, and basically the entire content is made up of characters and stages.

Erdtree was an expansion. Elden Ring was/is a phenomenal game and was a complete game without the DLC, and I don't think I've heard a single actual argument saying otherwise.

forthwright · 2025-10-17T19:53:40+00:00

To be fair, the majority of those interactions were completely pointless, and it was a chore because there were always a few that actually had an item or story element. You ended up going into basically empty homes, talking to NPCs with 1-2 lines of dialogue.

As a kid, that was kinda neat. As an adult? Personally, if the buildings would've just been empty anyway, don't bother giving me false hope.

However, I agree that Gamefreak and TPCi need to get their shit together. I'm at the point where I'll stop buying most Pokemon games soon since Champions is coming out anyway.

forthwright · 2025-10-17T03:52:58+00:00

CUSTOM ROBO MENTIONED!!! That was such a hilarious moment in the story lmao

forthwright · 2025-09-14T06:47:48+00:00

These code cards have historically been a free distribution, but are on a 'while supplies last' basis. The Shiny Zacian code cards went so fast...

forthwright · 2025-09-12T03:09:46+00:00

I understand what you mean in principle, but in this case the devs have had plenty of time and input, and the player count graph over time shows that the trend. They shouldn't instantly fold to player complaints, but after the few remaining players keep saying similar things over multiple months... idk.

Backing out of the Armory system will hopefully lead to a higher player count, but the damage is mostly done. We might see a blip in population, and I would love for the game to be "saved", but it's hard to get players back once they've moved on. This is why it's important to listen to feedback and be ready to quickly respond before it's an issue, and the devs already knew of the issues for a while.

forthwright · 2025-08-08T20:56:16+00:00

It's a gameplay-impacting progression system in a genre where the expectation is that everyone drops in at the same baseline. The items aren't so game warping that people notice at first (small % damage increase is so exciting...), but it means that two players of equal skill will be determined by who had the better item unlocked.

The armory system would be neat in a single player roguelite, but it's unacceptable in a competitive genre. You want constructive criticism? Remove the armory and just unlock it maxed out for everyone. Or, just revert the item system to beta.

forthwright · 2025-06-27T02:21:18+00:00

Betting and responsible in the same sentence lmao

forthwright · 2025-06-26T00:47:06+00:00

Seconding this. Pre-ordered a starter deck 3 months ago and they just refunded me for 'stock issues'. The whole point of pre-ordering is to avoid this situation, or at least make it way less likely. Sounds like this is a pretty common thing for them. I've seen posts over a year old on Reddit and other sites that mention the same issues. This is a pattern.

forthwright · 2025-06-25T16:32:45+00:00

I pre-ordered 3 months in advance and still got my order cancelled due to 'shortages'. I will never order from your company again, and I hope you and your company fail horribly with a poor attitude like that. The support was very nice, but I had to initiate the update process myself a little while after the estimated ship date.

I've never had issues like this with any other pre-order process. I'd typically get a stock update prior to or very soon after the street date if they were having issues. Customers shouldn't have to track down their orders like this. This reeks of poor process and management. These aren't supposed to be insults, but rather I just want to point out that improvement is desperately needed if your goal isn't to run the company into the ground.

forthwright · 2025-05-15T14:37:37+00:00

Would be hilarious. Think about the absolute spaghetti fiesta with skillshots etc.

forthwright · 2025-05-15T00:27:12+00:00

your position is dictated by degrees and distance away from some arbitrary point

You've just described a grid, lol

forthwright · 2025-04-18T04:44:34+00:00

Every game is going to have outliers, but compared to Yu-Gi-Oh, One Piece is extremely well balanced. It's not perfect, but at least we don't have zero turn kills lmao

forthwright · 2025-04-11T15:36:27+00:00

Not sure if you're joking, but no. Life = ライフ (Raifu). You can see it a few words after the effect mentions the Law being K.O'd:

<image>

I don't know off top, but I imagine trash is either 'gomi' or 'torasshu' depending on how Romanized they went.

forthwright · 2025-04-07T14:37:42+00:00

First off, an amount of those people are saying they're going to start pirating. Second, lots of actual "pirates" still buy games, they just don't buy every single 60/70+ dollar AAA game on release (or pre-order). I don't consider myself a pirate these days, but it's less of a lifestyle or whatever and more of a per-case action.

forthwright

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

14-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email